Email Spam – How to Check a PTR Record

emailptr-recordspam

I need to check a PTR record to make sure that a script I have is sending emails which will actually be received by my users and not be incorrectly marked as spam.

I understand that the ISP which owns the IP range has to set up the PTR record, but how do I check if it is already set up?

Best Answer

If you have Unix or Linux, you can do this by typing this on a command prompt:

dig -x xx.yy.zz.aa

You'll get an answer with your authority of aa.zz.yy.xx.in-addr.arpa and server resolving to this address.

In Windows you can do nslookup xx.yy.zz.aa.

You can also check online at www.intodns.com and input your domain... It will error on the results checking for a reverse zone lookup.

xx.yy.zz.aa = The IP address you're trying to resolve

Update:

When using dig, nslookup, or host it is frequently useful to use a DNS server outside of your control like Google (8.8.8.8) so you get confirmation things are right from a 3rd party. – Zoredache

Zoredache makes a good point. Here are the commands for testing/resolving to external/outside DNS servers:

Dig (testing reverse DNS on Google's DNS server of 8.8.8.8):

dig -x zz.yy.xx.aa @8.8.8.8

Host and Nslookup (testing reverse dns on Google's DNS server of 8.8.8.8)

nslookup zz.yy.xx.aa 8.8.8.8
host zz.yy.xx.aa 8.8.8.8
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